Article

MICHAEL MCDONNELL

I am a Berlin based artist from Liverpool, UK. My Education is in Graphic Design but more recently I have been working a lot with Illustration and Hand drawn Lettering.
My main inspiration is 1950s and 60s Illustration, I like the minimalism and cleanness of this era and also the feeling of optimism expressed in Pop culture from back then. Street Art and the quirkiness of European branding and logo styles are other influences within my works as well as the idea of showing a hand drawn aesthetic and off-key style rather than something that is too sharp and perfect.
I like to use wordplay and humour within my works to make a comment on social attitudes and behaviour within different countries and societies; putting certain words together and highlighting certain letters so that people can look deeper into the words and come up with different thoughts than what is at first readable and visible to the eye.
I think that Handdrawn Lettering/Typography is something that gets overlooked in the art world but it can more than often be better at expressing a feeling or emotion than an image can and this is the main theme of my work. My works are in the medium of Posters and screen prints and are produced in limited amounts. I also do Canvas and paint on skateboard decks.